SHU students help Ansonia shape its future

Updated 12:04 pm, Saturday, November 25, 2017

From left, Sacred Heart University students Nicolette Black, 22, of Norwalk; Samantha Jackson, 21, of Trumbull; Assistant Director of the Student Experience in the College of Business Elizabeth Stouch; Brendan Walsh, 22, of Wilton; Julian Linke, 24, of Germany, Associate Professor Joshua Shuart, and Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O'Malley tour the Ansonia Copper and Brass property in September. less

From left, Sacred Heart University students Nicolette Black, 22, of Norwalk; Samantha Jackson, 21, of Trumbull; Assistant Director of the Student Experience in the College of Business Elizabeth Stouch; Brendan ... more

From left; Assistant Director of the Student Experience in the College of Business Elizabeth Stouch, Sacred Heart University students Samantha Jackson, 21, of Trumbull, Julian Linke, 24, of Germany, Brendan Walsh, 22, of Wilton, and Associate Professor Joshua Shuart speak with EPA On-Scene Coordinator Allen Jarrell during a tour of the Ansonia Copper and Brass property on Thursday, September 28, 2017,. The students will be working with the city to develop a master plan for the site. less

From left; Assistant Director of the Student Experience in the College of Business Elizabeth Stouch, Sacred Heart University students Samantha Jackson, 21, of Trumbull, Julian Linke, 24, of Germany, Brendan ... more

ANSONIA — Take four students from Sacred Heart University’s business school.

Send them into a blue-collar city whose major development parcel is 63 contiguous acres of vacant industrial hulks atop polluted brownfields.

Ask the students to help Ansonia’s economic development director build a master plan for the largest brownfield and a marketing blueprint for the city.

That’s what Nicolette Black, a finance major from Norwalk; Julian Linke, an economics major from Germany and Samantha Jackson and Brendan Walsh, marketing majors from Trumbull and Wilton, respectively, have been doing for two months.

Their work is part of SHU’s Problem Based Learning Lab. And its no coincidence that Joshua Shuart, chairman of the university’s marketing and sports management department, picked Ansonia for the latest project.

Shuart is a city resident and 6th Ward aldermen.

“This is a useful learning experience,” he said recently. “(The students) are dealing with real people struggling with a tight municipal budget in the middle of an election. It’s something they would not experience in a classroom.”

Shuart and Elizabeth Stouch, SHU’s assistant director of student experience, oversee the teaching and school work associated with the project, while Sheila O’Malley, Ansonia’s economic development director and John P. Marini, its corporation counsel, offer direction.

“The school has encouraged its students to do this kind of work before,” Marini said. “Dr. Shuart came to us with the proposal, and we thought it was a good idea for us and for the students.”

One similar study took place during Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch’s administration. SHU students at that time recommended investing in Webster Bank Arena and shelving the nearby ballpark because, they advised, “baseball is currently not working.”

This year Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim’s announce plans to replace The Ballpark at Harbor Yard with an amphitheater.

O’Malley, who has a staff of one — Anna Andretta — welcomed input from the four students working on Ansonia’s challenges.

“It’s good to get a different perspective, particularly one coming from people who don’t live here,” O’Malley said. “And you can’t beat the cost.”

The students come at no cost to the city. They get credit instead.

They’ve toured the old Ansonia Copper and Brass site. They listened as Allan Jarrell, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s on-scene coordinator, discussed some of the clean-up challenges.

Among the known hazards at the site are copper, zinc, chromium, arsenic and lead, along with lab beakers of chemicals and transformers filled with PCBs. The students have seen rainwater pouring through roof holes, regurgitating chemical remnants in open pickling vats.

“There’s a lot of bad stuff here,” Jarrell said.

O’Malley said it will cost up to $10 million to drop the remaining five buildings on the site to the ground. EPA budgeted $1 million for its role. British Petroleum, which once owned the site, is also on the hook for clean-up costs. The city is hoping for help from the Connecticut Land Bank Trust.

“This was the city,” O’Malley told the students “If you worked here, you lived here,” he said, pointing to the numerous century-old, multi-family homes dotting Franklin Street. “Any hope of economic development has to come from this site. It will have to be done in phases.”

The Ansonia Copper and Brass site, together with the vacant and adjacent SHW Casting Co. and a former Farrel plant, comprise 63 acres — 1/15 of the city — running from Liberty Street through the downtown up to Wakelee Avenue near its Route 8 entrance to Seymour. An active rail line runs through the site.

About 3 miles away, students got a look at Ansonia’s industrial future — touring the inside of the year-old Farrel Pomini plant in the Fountain Lake Commerce Park.

Paul Zepp, the company’s chief financial officer, took the students through his glistening facility.

Some students have gone to the high school’s football games. Others have walked the downtown which has become a restaurant row of 13 shops.

“There a lot of diversity in this city,” said Linke, the student from Germany. “I’d like to see us mend that into a marketing plan.”

During a Thursday morning meeting, Shuart told his students how he used to drive to Milford or Orange to find a restaurant, but not anymore.

“I haven’t left (Ansonia) on a weekend to go out to eat in probably two years,” he said. “There’s enough places downtown we like.”

Shuart talked about the re-creation of Banko’s, an iconic downtown music store which under a new owner cleaned up, branched out and plans to take over Rock the Valley — Ansonia’s annual summer festival.

He told the students about Valley Lighting — with its 27,000-square-foot showroom on Chestnut Street.

“You walk in the door and its like walking into a whole new world,” Shuart said. “Visual things change your perception on whether you want to go inside.”

O’Malley said Ansonia’s brand can be developed around its football prowess — 18 state high school championship and more in the youth football programs. She wants it built around Mayor David Cassetti’s “Re-Charging Ansonia” theme — a play on the high school’s nickname, the Chargers.

The students see the brownfield as a possible sports complex site. They visited sports facilities in Fairfield, Seymour, Shelton and Trumbull.

“The task was to see what’s out there and what can be done differently,” Shuart said. “They’ve really immersed themselves in this.”

O’Malley said the brownfield could be redeveloped into some combination of industrial, commercial and retail, but not residential.

“It depends on what complements the other,” she said.

Shuart promised the students would have something done by December, and said, “It’ll be up to them if they want to re-register and continue ... or other students could pick it up.”

He said the Ansonia Nature Center asked also for help to create a business plan.